A Happy Birthday Aunt B Weekend

This weekend Beth came to Starkville to celebrate her birthday with us.
Dave and I had a good time watching these two play. It is obvious that Joshua loves his Aunt B and Aunt B loves her Joshua.

Even though Beth does not like any dish with pumpkin in it she sure knew how to get Josh-o-lantern to smile for pictures.

Reading together

Joshua bangs his head into yours as a sign of affection. Aunt B was shown love a lot this weekend.

"Are you kidding, I gave you that for your birthday!?! Can I have it back?"

A shirt like Pop Pop's

It feels like it has been a busy week, although we have very few pictures to show for it.

Joshua came home from day care early Thursday with a stomach bug which made for a long weekend. But we survived and now we are on to the challenge of changing his sleeping pattern. We are hoping all 3 of us survive the change.

Fall has come to our neighborhood. Our neighbors across the street have the prettiest tree on the block.

For as long as I can remember, my Pop Pop has worn short sleeved golf shirts that have a pocket to hold his magnifying glass. Joshua wore a shirt this week that reminds me of something Pop Pop would wear. It has a tiny little pocket that might hold a quarter. Of course Joshua looked handsome in his Pop Pop shirt.

We are looking forward to the weekend. Aunt B is coming to hang out and we are gearing up for the trick or treat stampede we experienced last year. Details to come...

In Health News Today...

We learned from his 9-month check-up that Joshua is growing. He weighs 18 lbs 8 oz and is 27.75 inches tall.

We can see that he is growing by how grown up he looks in his blue jeans. They are a little big so the Huckleberry Finn pant leg roll is necessary, but he is quite cute in them nonetheless.

Seriously weighing the costs vs. benefits of disobeying.

Have a great week from the editorial staff of Nolen News

9-month old boy charms his way to a free pumpkin

Joshua and I make frequent trips to Wal-Mart. He loves going and riding in the cart. Joshua flashes smiles at passersby and will clap and laugh when anyone gives him attention.
Monday, Joshua stole the heart of a 70-something year old gentleman. We were headed to the checkout by way of the produce section. As we passed the pumpkin display Joshua went crazy with delight. He started squealing, clapping, kicking his legs and laughing. The man handed Joshua a small pumpkin and Joshua kissed it and smiled the biggest 2-tooth smile I have ever seen. The gentleman said, "Oh, I think that little boy needs this pumpkin," to which I replied, "No, we already have a great pumpkin at home." Not taking "no" for an answer, he hands me $1 and says, "You go buy this pumpkin for that baby." I had no option but to say, "Yes sir and thank you very much."
So Joshua has his free pumpkin. Too bad Joshua didn't make a scene around the flat screen TVs or we could have been watching Saturday's game in style!
We tried to get a picture of him with both of our pumpkins but he was much more excited about licking the pumpkin or bouncing it on the floor like a basketball. Here are our best shots.

"Wow, that pumpkin has a really cool curl in it's stem! I've never seen anything like it."
"This looks like a basketball, let's see if it bounces like one."

"So this is what pumpkin pie tastes like without the pie."

"Look, its as big as my head!"

0.75 years of age

Joshua is 9-months old today!

Being Joshua's parents is such fun. We are constantly learning how to best teach and care for him. Some things we now know:

• Punishment. It usually only takes us saying "no" to something for Joshua to burst into tears. But the buttons of the dvd player and the picture frames and candles on the end table are so cool, Joshua is willing to get in trouble just for a few seconds of playtime with them.
• It is not a good idea to laugh when Joshua disobeys in a humorous manner. (for example: While eating dinner, it is funny when a fraction of a second after telling Joshua not to throw cheerios on the floor, he looks at you, holds his fist full of cheerios over the floor and opens his hand without blinking. However, it is not ok to laugh in that moment.)
• Joshua has some kind of 6th sense that wakes him from his nap as soon as I lay down to rest.
• No matter how difficult we make it for him, Joshua will find a way to climb behind the chair and then behind the couch.
• Joshua is a fast crawler.
• Don't worry, he'll let you know if he wants something.

"Mr. Personality" is the best descriptive name for Joshua right now. He smiles big, laughs a lot and cries when he doesn't get his way. Things we know about Joshua:

• Joshua is observant. He will sit quietly and watch what is going on around him. I'm sure it is only a matter of time before he starts trying to do the things he has been watching others do.
• Joshua is all boy. He likes to bang his sippy cup on the table and yell during supper, he loves to wrestle with Dave, and already thinks it is funny to pass gas.
• Joshua's legs are ticklish.
• He loves to eat. Last Wednesday Joshua ate the following foods for lunch: carrots, apricots and mixed fruit, country berry applesauce, meatloaf, mac and cheese and green beans.
• Joshua loves books. He will sit and turn the pages of his books over and over. When he gets fussy at school his teacher puts him in his bed with some books and he quickly calms down and entertains himself for a while.
• He likes to be startled or scared. There are very few things that can get Joshua laughing harder then Dave jumping out from behind the door and scaring him. (The same is not true for Joshua's mom!)

We have some fun family things coming up in the next few months. Aunt B will be here for Halloween and her birthday weekend, Abigail's 1st birthday, a family reunion at Thanksgiving, and of course Dave is looking forward to hunting season. I'm sure all of these events will produce some excellent blog entries.

Thanks for reading our blog. We'll see you again next week!

Happy Birthday, Uncle Larry!

We want to wish our Uncle Larry a Happy Birthday!

We cheered for your hogs last weekend and were excited they beat the tigers.

Thanks for my Arkansas t-shirt.

I can't wait to see you at Thanksgiving!

Love, Joshua

Star Wars, Pirate or Ninja

For Dave's birthday, Joshua wore his new Star Wars t-shirt. Old Navy has "vintage" t-shirts for small children and I couldn't pass this Star Wars t-shirt up knowing how much Dave loves those movies (at least the first 3 movies). We also have a pretty cool Batman shirt that will be debuted later in the winter-stay tuned.

We are finally getting a video taken over Labor Day weekend posted. Joshua loved playing with a small toy sand shovel at Coach and Nana's that weekend. He swung it around like a sword and started making "pirate" noises each time he picked the shovel up. Maybe Joshua is trying to tell us what he wants to be for Halloween.

Or maybe he wants to be a ninja. Although the pajamas featured in this video are Christmas related, Joshua looks like a ninja in them. Dave has been teaching him ninja fighting techniques for a while now. See what you think about his fighting skills...

Celebration Weekend!

Last weekend we celebrated!

October is a popular birthday month in our family so we made a weekend of celebrating birthdays. Uncle Chad, Aunt Glo, Abigail and Aunt B came Friday to hang out and spend the night. After Joshua and Abigail both napped at different times throughout the afternoon we went for a walk on campus to enjoy a gorgeous day. Saturday the 2nd wave of celebrationists arrived. Coach, Nana, GG, Aunt Gay (all the way from Fayetteville, AR), Gumby, Aunt Joy, Tanner, Travis, Trevor and Jessica came to our house. We had lunch and celebrated Aunt Joy's 50th birthday, Jessica's birthday and mine and Dave's 30th birthdays. We had a great time!
Dave's birthday was Monday. Joshua and I made his favorite supper and gave him some funny cards. Today is my birthday and Dave let me sleep in and graciously got up with Joshua this morning. They went on a "secret mission" to Wal-Mart at 7:45 am to get me flowers and birthday cards. They both seemed quite pleased that they made it there and back without me knowing they were gone. It's been a fun week of celebrating!

Kick up your feet and enjoy the walk.

Abigail and Bully

Joshua and Bully

Joshua has not been sleeping well at night. So after everyone else went home, he and Aunt B took a nap in his rocking chair Saturday afternoon.

Happy 30th Birthday Dad!

Happy 30th Birthday, Mom!

The adventures in Starkville continue

Joshua was so very glad the rain finally stopped. Even better-the sun came out and brought a smile to his face. A smile which now contains 2 teeth!

We have had to start barricading Joshua in the room with us. He has discovered that we have more than one room in our house and now wants to explore the other ones. The exersaucer, also called "Checkpoint Charlie" by Dave, fits perfectly in the doorframe. However, Joshua has figured out how to sneak past by squeezing around the side or crawling through the bottom.

Joshua is quite pleased with himself when he makes it to the other side.

Our friends the Liens taught us about pillow pits. While Joshua is not yet launching himself off furniture into the pillow pit like the Lien kids, he does love to be tossed into the pit.

This is Freddie Milons-former Alabama star receiver and Starkville, Mississippi native. He often appears on the local news station discussing upcoming SEC football games and works at the local Wal-Greens. As you know from last week's post, Joshua is now signaling touchdown frequently. Today as Joshua and I were shopping in Wal-Greens he started signaling touchdown. I responded by calling out "Touchdown Alabama!" Freddie Milons was working on the aisle next to us and came over to see what all the Alabama talk was about. I had seen him there before and knew who he was when he came on the aisle. He said, "I used to play football at Alabama and had to come see who was saying 'touchdown Alabama' over here." I replied, "I know who you are." I introduced him to Joshua and told Joshua, "This is Mr. Freddie. He used to score lots of touchdowns for Alabama." Freddie smiled and said, "Oh, I don't know about that." I got Joshua to signal touchdown for him, which doesn't usually happen on command. So we had to make sure to post about this historic meeting of a past Alabama football great with a future Alabama football great.

The Kitchen Chair

We have entered a new phase at the Nolen house.

Joshua now has a tooth!

After much pain and many tears his bottom right-center tooth has successfully arrived.

Dave and I would like to express our appreciation to the makers of Night Time Orajel and Children's Motrin for their help in keeping us sane.

This is the last picture of a toothless smile.

We tried to snap a photo of the new tooth without success. Neither of us have been allowed to examine Joshua's bottom gums since Tuesday. For all we know, he could have several teeth down there. But I think it would take some heavy duty machinery to pry Joshua's mouth open for us to get a good look.

Joshua is a quick study. He signaled touchdown several times during lunch today.

(I guess this is the result of us watching nearly 12 hours of football 2 Saturdays in a row.)
Joshua makes this "Popeye" face all the time. We crack up every time he does it. What is funnier is when we mimic the face back to him, Joshua laughs at us.

I know what you are thinking...

"Wow, Amelia sure takes a lot of pictures of Joshua in the kitchen chair."

To which I would reply, "You're right. It is the only place we can restrain him enough to get a decent picture of him these days."

We have had so much rain over the last 40 days and 40 nights we are considering planting rice or growing crawfish in our backyard as a creative way to start raising money for Joshua's college fund.

8-months old

This week Joshua turned 8-months old. A good picture in the rocking chair, complete with sign and dog is proving impossible.

This is the best we could do this month as far as birthday pictures go.

Monday night while Joshua was eating dinner I said, "Joshua guess what, you are 8-months old today!" In response he started clapping. It was very cute. (How I wish I was excited enough to clap each time I was told I am getting older!)

A picture of the Bama baseball cap it a must!

Joshua and Dave both decided to wear their Mississippi State shirts last Saturday since of all the teams we follow, MSU probably needed our t-shirt support more than the others. We made it up until about 30 minutes before kickoff before Joshua spit up all over himself and Dave leading to a wardrobe change. Naturally they picked matching Bama shirts.

Joshua has stared making a really funny face that resembles Popeye. We are trying to get a picture of it as it makes us laugh every time he does it. We have a quick video to post but blogger isn't cooperating right now-stay tuned for that.


Our friends the Edwards are picking up their adopted daughter this week in South Korea. Jason is there right now and gets to meet Jayne Riley tonight. If you like, follow his trip and meet their new baby girl on their blog: http://www.edwardsfamilyadoption.blogspot.com/

Kickoff Club!

Joshua and Abigail experienced their first kickoff to college football. They had matching Mississippi State T-shirts that were worn during the MSU game

(Go Dawgs!).

Then after the MSU game there was a wardrobe change in to matching Alabama

t-shirts

(Roll Tide!).

Enjoy some photos from the "Kickoff Club" meeting in Coach's End Zone room.

The President and Vice President of the Kickoff Club

Future SEC Commissioner

What is a Hokie anyway?

The best shot of the MSU t-shirt I could get as Joshua climbed up to grab my camera.

Joshua, what does the elephant say?

"Roll Tide!"

Labor Day Weekend in Jackson

Photo Highlights from Labor Day Weekend

Good morning Abigail!

Scrub-a-dub-dub in Nana's big laundry room tub

"Sharing" and wearing matching MSU t-shirts

Two of Joshua's favorite people-GG and Hardy the Dog

After a long morning walk with Coach

Up to No Good...

Joshua is always into something. And it seems that whatever he gets into usually ends up in his mouth. He seems to have no fear. At any given moment, if he isn't putting an inedible object in his mouth, he is probably trying to climb onto or fall off something taller than he is.

We are grateful to our friends the Edwards who let us come "shopping" at their house for clothes the boys have outgrown. Joshua also inherited a box of trucks and books. At this point, Dave is more interested in the trucks than Joshua.

We are looking forward to football season starting this weekend. We now officially own baby clothes pledging allegiance to 3 SEC schools. We pledge varying levels of allegiance to these 3 schools as will be evident by the number of Alabama related clothes we now have. I'm sure many pictures will be taken of said outfits this weekend as Joshua and Abigail are scheduled to celebrate the kickoff to Football '09 together at Coach and Nana's house.

Joshua seems to prefer crawling off the changing table to having his diaper changed or putting on his pajamas.

What could be more fun than 2 large picture frames to play with?

I guess an empty milk carton from the trash can could be more fun than picture frames.

This is Hardy the Dog. Hardy was given to Joshua by our good friend Emily who lives in Tuscaloosa. Joshua likes to wrestle Hardy while Hardy sings songs to him. Hardy sings The Itsy Bitsy Spider if you touch his ear and I am almost positive Joshua did a few of the motions to the song the other day. I know that the chances of that are slim but I'm not totally convinced it was just coincidence.

One of Dave and Joshua's favorite things to do together is make faces in a mirror.

Public Service Announcement:
Everyone likes something free, right? Well, Dolly Parton is giving away children's books to kids under 5 years old through her Imagination Library. The child gets a free book every month until they turn 5. The program is not available in Starkville so Joshua gets his free book sent to Aunt Beth's house in Birmingham. So if you have a child, grandchild, niece, nephew, etc check out Dolly's website to register them. (Thanks Alex H. for telling Joshua about the books you get at your Gran and Rev's house. You're a great friend!)